Call Me Old-Fashioned But... You can’t handle the truth

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I think things must have been easier in
the Wild West. If you had a beef with
someone, you called a duel, and whoever
could pull their gun out of their holster
with superior lightening speed, well, problem
resolved. But it wasn’t merely this
method of “social control” that proved
more effective. The nature of the conflicts
that emerged between people seemed to be
largely based on more “tangible” concerns
such as limited resources – whether in the
form of food, water, territory or women. In
contrast, these days, and I propose it’s
because we as North Americans have SO
much, we CREATE conflicts and social
categories intended to enhance divisiveness
– something I like to term “humanmade
drama” – that in reality don’t have
very strong feet to stand on (sound familiar?
9/11 perhaps?). A more down-to-earth
example can be seen in the case of
“Internet flame wars.” I mean, honestly,
can someone please explain to me the purpose
of such juvenility, let alone the
cause? As always, an instance from my
own life proves illustrative – don’t you
love it when real life serves as inspiration?
I know I do! So here goes:

For no reason and without any provocation
on my end, just the other day some
random chick posted up big and bold, for
the whole world to see, that she apparently
hates me, in her Facebook headline –
something I only learned about because it
would seem we have some mutual
acquaintances. Seeing as I’ve NEVER met
or conversed with this individual, I find it
hard to believe she could harbour such
strong emotions toward me. I don’t
know...maybe I’m crazy, but I am selective
when I use said term, and you best
believe that if and when I do employ
“hate,” it’s for good reason.

I guess I’m just of the belief that if
someone has a grievance, they should
have “the balls” to confront the other person
to their face. Talking trash behind peoples’
backs is underhanded and vicious.
More importantly though, it also fails to
solve anything! Oh yeah, and for those of
you who think this is the more “polite”
approach, I hate to break it to ya, quite the
opposite is true. Not only would this, I’m
sure, prevent a whole hell of a lot of long
drawn-out affairs that arise entirely from
miscommunication, but further it is the
respectful and mature way to broach said
situations. Perhaps my criticizer was having
an exceptionally bad day, but rather
than look into her own psyche in order to
ascertain the underlying cause, she decided
to project her negativity onto me to
scapegoat any sense of personal responsibility.
Or maybe, more simply, her actions
were fuelled by jealously? In either scenario,
I maintain her animosity in my general
direction was and remains unjustified.

There are a lot of individuals out there,
in both the real world and cyberspace,
with whom I don’t particularly mesh well
(to put it lightly), but I don’t have the time
nor do I wish to waste the emotion on creating
hate postings. For what purpose? To
put someone else down so I can temporarily
feel grandiose? I’d like to take this
moment to send a personal message to my
hate-poster: If the only vehicle through
which you are able to develop a sense of
confidence and self-worth is by putting
others down, then my darling, you’ve got
bigger problems than just me. But I
digress...

To bring everything full circle, what this
story so aptly demonstrates is contemporary
humankind’s obsession with negativity
(and yes it is an obsession, NOT a natural
inclination - as they say, happiness is a
CHOICE). Because we no longer have to
direct the vast majority of our intellectual
and physical faculties into acquiring the
bare necessities of life, we have time for
gossip, we have time for “Internet flame
wars,” we have time to bully – all
instances of “human-made drama.”

We have forgotten that every word,
every action, and even every thought we
put out there affects others. We have
become so caught up in our own selfish
individual existences that we tear each
other down, without giving it a second
thought, just to get ahead. We care about
our lives now, instead of planning for the
future. We externalize our desires, and
blame everyone else for our failings. So, is
money then the root of all evil? No.
Money is merely a medium of transaction.
As for the aforementioned negative and
obsessive line of thinking? Yeah, I’d say
so. The truth hurts. Deal with it.

Modern society’s issues are indisputably
human-made, but in the ever-so-slightly
paraphrased words of Jason Mraz, “The
remedy is [in] the experience.” We can
AND should learn from our mistakes. And
while I may be undertaking a “dangerous
liaison” by pointing all of this out, “the
truth” as another famous quote suggests,
“will set you free.”

Interrobang

The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd in London, Ontario and distributed throughout the Fanshawe College community.